Israel will keep the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in a 1967 war, even if international views on Damascus change, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Monday.
In 2019, then U.S. President Donald Trump broke with other world powers by recognising Israel as sovereign on the Golan Heights, which it annexed in 1981 in a move not recognised internationally.
Bennett's remarks came as the current U.S. administration hedges on the Golan's legal status and some U.S.-allied Arab states ease their shunning of Bashar al-Assad over his handling of a decade-old civil war.
Addressing a conference about the Golan's future, Bennett said the internal Syrian strife had "persuaded many in the world that perhaps it is preferable that this beautiful and strategic territory be in the State of Israel's hands.
"But even in a situation in which - as could happen - the world changes tack on Syria, or in relation to Assad, this has no bearing on the Golan Heights," he told the forum hosted by the conservative Makor Rishon newspaper.
"The Golan Heights is Israeli, full stop."
In his speech, Bennett pledged to double the size of the Israeli population on the Golan, which at around 20,000 is currently about equal to that of a Druze Arab community that often professes loyalty to Syria.
An official source in Syria's foreign ministry condemned Bennett's settlement comments.
"Such aggressive statements and policies will not change the eternal truth that the Golan was and will remain Arab and Syrian, and that it is returning to the motherland sooner or later," the source said.
